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Public Attitudes Towards Chinese Medicine in Melbourne, Australia

  • Charlie CL Xue , Clifton Lee , Joanna Karagiannis , Chunguang Li , Angela WH Yang , Lin Zhang and David F Story
Published/Copyright: November 22, 2005
Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine
From the journal Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine Volume 2 Issue 1

Purpose: To investigate the public attitudes towards Chinese medicine and the impact of the introduction of statutory practitioner registration in Melbourne, Australia. Method: A convenience sample of 575 participants (18-45 years of age) from three locations in Melbourne completed a self-administered, 60-question survey in August 2002. Results: In the previous 12 months, Chinese medicine had been used by 30.9% of the respondents and 17.3% had visited a Chinese medicine practitioner. For each of eight common conditions listed in the survey, between 61.2% and 92.7% of participants indicated that western medicine was their preferred therapeutic option, rather than Chinese medicine or combination of Western and Chinese medicine. However, substantial proportions of participants preferred Chinese medicine for stomach or internal problems (28.4%), cold/flu (18.8%) and dizziness (17.6%). Although 78.2% were aware that statutory practitioner registration had recently been introduced in the State, only 29.9% indicated that they would only visit a registered practitioner. Implication: More stringent surveillance of Chinese medicine service providers and a public education campaign may be necessary to protect against unauthorized Chinese medicine practice.

Keywords: Chinese Medicine; Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Attitudes; Melbourne; Australia
Published Online: 2005-11-22

©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.2202/1553-3840.1024
Keywords for this article
Chinese Medicine; Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Attitudes; Melbourne; Australia

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Invited Review
  2. An Evidence-based Systemic Review of Glucosamine Conducted by the Natural Standard Research Collaboration
  3. From Bench to Bedside to Consumer: Where are the Regulatory Problems for Probiotics?
  4. Review Article
  5. Integrating Complementary and Alternative Medicine With Primary Health Care Through Public Health To Improve Chronic Disease Management
  6. Conference Presentation
  7. CAM Health Services and Policy Research in Canada - New Directions: Abstracts from the First Annual IN-CAM Symposium, December 4&5, 2004, Toronto, Canada
  8. CAM Research in Canada: Sharing Successes and Challenges - Abstracts from the 2nd Annual IN-CAM Symposium, November 12&13, 2005, Toronto, Canada
  9. Case Report
  10. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Successfully Treated with Low Level Laser Therapy
  11. Clinical Observation of 11 Patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Treated with Traditional Chinese Medicine
  12. Research Article
  13. The Chinese Quality Of Life Instrument: Development Of A New Health-Related Quality Of Life Instrument Using Factor Analysis And Structural Equation Modeling
  14. Public Attitudes Towards Chinese Medicine in Melbourne, Australia
  15. Mentorship Programs within a Network to Build Research Literacy & Capacity in Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM) Practitioners
  16. Chemical Marker Profile and Biological Effects of Natural Products Containing Echinacea
  17. Position Paper
  18. Providing Probiotics to Sub-Saharan Africa: Ethical Principles to Consider
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